A Study on Ancestral Domain Recognition and Management Within and Around the Mt. Kitanglad Range National Park Vel J. Suminguit and Erlinda Burton Southeast Asia Policy Research Working Paper, No. 18 Acknowledgement This report is part of the ASB Project in Indonesia. The Asian Development Bank, under RETA 5711, financially supported this specific work. © Copyright ICRAF Southeast Asia Further information please contact: ICRAF SE-Asia Southeast Asian Regional Research Programme PO Box 161 Bogor 16001 Indonesia Tel: 62 251 625415, fax: 62 251 625416 Email: [email protected] ICRAF Southeast Asia website: http://www.icraf.cgiar.org/sea Cover design: Dwiati N. Rini Illustration design: Wiyono Declaimer This text is a ‘working paper’ reflecting research results obtained in the framework of ICRAF Southeast Asia project. Full responsibility for the contents remains with the authors. A Study on Ancestral Domain Recognition and Management Within and Around the Mt. Kitanglad Range National Park1 By Vel J. Suminguit2 and Erlinda Burton3 Introduction The Philippine government recognizes the critical importance of protecting and maintaining biodiversity for the present and future generations. This recognition is formally articulated in Section 2 of Republic Act 7586, otherwise known as "The National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992" or NIPAS Act. At the same time, the Philippine government recognizes and promotes the rights of the Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) or Indigenous Peoples (IPs), who are mostly occupants of the protected areas. The State’s recognition of the ICCs/IP’s rights is embodied in the Philippine Constitution (Art. II, Sec. 22) and reiterated in Section 13 of the NIPAS Act. This recognition is further given substance by the enactment of Republic Act 8371, also known as “The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997" or IPRA. The passage of IPRA into law is a major victory for the ICCs/IPs who, for several decades, have struggled for the recognition of their rights over their ancestral domains. Both NIPAS and IPRA are aimed to improve the well-being and livelihood of the upland small holders while maintaining ecological diversity. It is in this context of multiple government policy objectives of preserving biodiversity, recognizing ICCs/IPs rights, and improving smallholder livelihoods that this study is conducted. In the province of Bukidnon, nine groups of indigenous cultural communities have already been granted with their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADC). The processing of their applications was completed in a timely fashion primarily because their claims were not within a protected area. Among the indigenous cultural communities near and within the Mount Kitanglad Range Natural Park (MKRNP), their application for a tenurial instrument has not been granted in spite of the existence of NIPAS and IPRA laws that explicitly recognize their rights over their ancestral domains. The key question is what prevents governmental authorities from granting CADC to ancestral right claimants? Do NIPAS and IPRA have procedures on how to deal with ancestral claims within and around a national park? Do they provide clear provisions about the processes that will lead to complementary management approaches between ancestral domains and protected areas? Do they have guidelines for how consultations with local communities are to be conducted? What is the best way to propose and determine ancestral domain claims within the protected area? When there is conflicting land use pattern within the protected area and ancestral domain, which law should be followed? Mt. Kitanglad Range National Park provides a unique case study to answer these questions because it is both an ancestral domain claim of the Talaandig-Higaonon tribe and at the same time a protected area. 1 This study was made possible through the funding support of the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, and in part by SANREM CRSP/SEA for allowing Vel J. Suminguit to use part of his time to continue working on this project while already a Site Coordinator of SANREM. The Kitanglad Integrated NGOs (KIN) also provided some funding support to complete the writing of this study. 2 A former research associate of RIMCU (Research Institute for Mindanao Culture), now working as the Site Coordinator of SANREM-CRSP/SEA. 3 Executive Director of RIMCU and a faculty member of the Sociology-Anthropology Department, Xavier University. 1 Objectives: Based on the above questions, this study has the following objectives: 1. to review the process of proposing and determining ancestral domain claims near and within a protected area. 2. to identify problems that emerged in the Kitanglad context and their policy implications for land use management and policy reform. Methods: This study used key informant interviews, focus group discussion, and participant observation to collect the primary data. The interviews and focus group discussion were tape recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. The key informant interview was characterized by interviews with individual datus, mayors, some officials of DENR, and KIN executive director. The interview with individual datu was primarily aimed at generating data on the ethnohistory of the Talaandig, specifically their ethnic origin, sense of territoriality, relationship with other ethnic groups, land use history and natural resource utilization. Because the datus attended the “Talaandig Day” celebration on October 14, 1998, many of them were interviewed individually during that occasion and similar occasions that took place at the Tulogan4 in Songco, Lantapan, Bukidnon. The interviews of the datus were completed during the month of October 1998. The mayors were interviewed to generate information on their comprehensive municipal land use plan and their views on how to propose an ancestral domain claim within the protected area. It took several months to complete the interviews of the mayors because some of them were out of town every time we came to interview them. Interviewing the Executive Director of KIN, the Park Superintendent (PaSu) of DENR, and the NCIP Commissioner Victorino Saway was equally difficult because we could not get hold of them every time we come to see them. Anyhow, the purpose of interviewing the PaSu and KIN was to develop an understanding of how they come up with the natural resource management and development plan for Mt. Kitanglad. The objective of interviewing the NCIP Commissioner was to get his view on how to propose an ancestral domain claim within the protected area and how he envisions to manage it once the CADC application is granted. Two senior DENR officials were asked to share their experience of processing ancestral domain claim applications in non-protected and protected areas. The provincial planning and development officer of Bukidnon was also interviewed to find out the provincial government’s natural resource development and management plan. To get a better understanding of what the datus want to do with Mt. Kitanglad once they are granted with CADC (Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim under NIPAS Act) or CADT (Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title under IPRA), a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was held on October 25, 1998 at VGL, Songco, Lantapan, Bukidnon. Fifteen datus attended the FGD with ages ranging from 33 to 71 years old. The number of years of being a datu ranges from two (2) to 35 years. Aside from wanting to know how the datus would like to manage Mt. Kitanglad, the FGD included a discussion on the status of their CADC/CADT application, natural resource utilization, and land use plan. There were some special events that took place during the course of this study that were documented by direct observation and by using recording devices such as tape recorder, video recorder and still camera. The video recording captured the very colorful dances of the Talaandig men, women, and children during the “Talaandig Day” and the “Proclamation Ritual on the Ownership of Plants and Wildlife Resources in Mt. Kitanglad” on December 20, 1998. 4 Tulogan literally means sleeping quarters, but could also mean the center of the village or community. 2 Brief Social History of The Talaandig-Higaonon This section describes the social history of the indigenous communities around Mt. Kitanglad, specifically the Talaandig and Higaonon groups. The description of their ethnic origin is derived from the result of interviews of several datus and from ethnographic studies. Combining these two sources of information is necessary to provide a clearer and coherent description of their social history. Ethnic Origin The indigenous inhabitants around Mt. Kitanglad are known collectively as Bukidnon (Bisayan word for “from the mountain”); but ethnolinguistically identified as Higaonon for those indigenous communities north of Malaybalay down to the province of Misamis Oriental. Southward from Malaybalay, specifically those communities around Lantapan and Talakag they refer to themselves as Talaandig. These two groups speak the Binukid language, which is a northern branch of the Manobo language stock. There are some minor dialectal variations among these communities, especially in the inflections and lexicons. Both the Higaonon and Talaandig people believe that they belong to the same ethnic group. The Higaonon claimed that their ancestors were coastal dwellers and were the original inhabitants of Misamis Oriental. However, the arrival of the dumagats (people from over the sea) during the Spanish times had encouraged the natives to move up to the plateaus or uplands, which now belong mostly to Bukidnon province. According to the Talaandig tradition, most of Bukidnon was the land of the Talaandig, the people of the slopes (andig). When the coastal dwellers moved up to the uplands, the Talaandig referred to them as "Higaonon" because the latter came from down the shore (higa). Thus, the Higaonon were people from the coastal area who went up to the mountains. But they share a common culture and language. The origin of the Talaandig and Higaonon is recounted in their epic called the olaging (the story being chanted), which has several versions.